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User Manual – FELIX Pro 1
Rev 3
www.FELIXprinters.com
[email protected]
16
TROUBLE SHOOTING
16.1
Z-sensor triggered, improper leveling, homing and
printing in the air.
The FELIX Pro 1, features automatic calibration. This calibration heavily relies on the probe switch, which
is integrated in the hot-end flexure (This is the flange mounted on the side of the top part of the hot-
end). This flexure, touches two contacts internally in the extruder assembly. When touching the bed this
flexure deformes and the contact is broken between one of the two contacts and the printer-controller at
that moment thinks that the currently active hot-end touches the bed. When the bed is moved away
from the hot-end the flexure restores its shape and the internal contact gets restored.
On the display unit, when hot-end touches the bed (probe is triggered) and there is no active print
command there should be a message "z-sensor triggered!!!". (This status message gets updated every
second). If you see this message, the printer controller thinks the z-probe is triggered. When the printer is
not touching the bed, this means it is falsely triggered and there is something wrong.
Under normal circumstances this mechanism should work. There are however some cases where the
probe can be falsely triggered:
Hot-end not correctly in place due to shipment or after replacement.
Make sure the hot-end is pushed in properly, all the way to the back of the extruder. You should
hear/feel a soft click. THen the flexure is fully attracted to the magnet inside the extruder. Pull
out the hot-end a few mm and push it backwards till you feel/hear a soft click.
Dirt between contactpoints of extruder base and flexure. make sure the contact points in the
extruder and the flexure are clean from debris or small particles.
Cooled filament present in old extruder. In some cases cooled down filament in the non-used
extruder could keep the flexure mechanism slightly deformed and could cause a (sometimes
constant) false trigger. If you will not use the hot-end, press from the top the filament a bit
down, which should restore the probe signal. Another method is to heat up the non-used hot-
end to approx. 150 degC, this should give the non-used hot-end flexure enough freedom to
restore to its normal position.
The flexure is deformed too much. This typically happens when you drop the hot-end on the
ground when switching between hot-ends. The hot-ends before leaving the factory are
calibrated to switch when approx 350grams of force is exerted. The mechanism is quite sensitive,
so deforming the flexure in any way other than getting deformed during operation is not
recommended.
If none of the above points apply, there might be something else wrong. Possilby a wire breakage. Please
contact us so we can help you further.
